1666

Great Fire of London burns for five days, nearly destroying the city, including St Paul's Cathedral, but claims few lives.

1796

The September Massacres, which killed some 1,200, begin when an armed band attacked prisoners being transferred between jails in Paris in the belief that they were counterrevolutionaries.

1866

Crete, after long discontent with Turkish authority, revolts and merges with Greece.

1912

Birth of Xuan Thuy (died 1985). He was head to the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam's delegation to the four-party conference starting in 1968 in Paris on peace in Viet Nam. The peace talks ended with an agreement on the withdrawal of the US forces from South Viet Nam in 1973. Thuy was later vice chairman of the State Council of the Republic.

1945

Viet Nam is proclaimed independent from foreign domination, and the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam is established with Ho Chi Minh as president.

1969

Death of President Ho Chi Minh (born 1890), founder and the first president of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam. He introduced Marxism-Leninism to the country, founded the Viet Nam Communist Party, and led the national struggle for independence. He is received as a symbol of morality and was recognised by UNESCO as a World Man of Culture.

1985

A US-French expedition locates the Titanic wreck, about 901km off Newfoundland, Canada.

1992

The United States and Russia agree to build a space station.

1996

Muslim rebels and the Philippine government sign a pact formally ending a 26-year insurgency that killed more than 120,000 people.

2002

The Sudanese government suspends peace talks with the country's main rebel group, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, or SPLA, after rebels seize the strategic town of Torit.

2005

A Belfast judge orders a suspected Irish Republican Army dissident to stand trial for the murders of 29 people in a 1998 car bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland's deadliest terrorist attack.

2006

Thousands of unpaid teachers across the Palestinian territories go on strike, shutting down schools on the first day of clases – a backlash that tests the Hamas-led government's ability to survive.

2007

The chief US negotiator says North Korea has agreed to declare and disable all its nuclear facilities by the end of the year.

2008

Thailand's prime minister declares a state of emergency in Bangkok to restore order after overnight clashes between government opponents and supporters left one person dead and 43 injured. — AP/REUTERS/VNS